781

I must say, I’m a sucker for the dramatic gunshot in a genre that usually doesn’t have guns. It’s rare, but when it does happen, it’s damn effective. (Even though guns have been a staple of this story, they still feel out of place in the best way, because in a literal sense they are.)

Agent 52

You could say pistols feel out of place because we hadn’t seen them before.

Nope. It’s a smoothbore pistol. You *could* load it with either shot or a single ball, though. Do you want the full, nerdy explanation?

(Fig.2) Ocean Burning

Luck? I was gonna give Eijiro some credit. “Kid’s pretty skilled if he can keep that old kind of gun working in the rain,” I was thinking. (Sorry, people, I don’t know names for kinds of guns.)

http://www.comicsagonistes.hackenbush.org/ Ginger Mayerson

Flintlock? And, no, I’m not that old.

Jeremy Cliff Armstrong

It’s actually a “matchlock”. You can see the oil-soaked wick dangling from
the striker on the other side. That brown thing dangling from the right
side (shooter’s perspective) of the firearm. The powder in the cup can even be damp… it might slow ignition but it should still be heated enough by the wick to fire after a moment or two.

And they actually do work better in wet weather than a flintlock, thanks to the oil that both repels water off the wick and keeps the smoldering flame in the wick going. The problem is lighting it before firing. So you can’t just pick it up and fire, loaded or not.

Archangel

I was thinking percussion caps, but it’s too early for that, isn’t it? Especially in Japan. Hell, I think it’s too early for wheel-locks.

(Fig.2) Ocean Burning

Nice info, thanks. I was never any good at paying attention to that kind of stuff in military classes in college. (Better at remembering info about non-gunpowder weapons…)

Little Kingsguard

The fact that Genchu has no idea what Hirotomo means by that tells me Hirotomo might have actually gotten what he wanted out of this: his son killing him.

Andy Nguyen

Or maybe Nataku was the father…that would have given him even more reason to have Harumi killed by Daisuke ronin…and make him even more awful (but perhaps explain why he took Eijiro under his wing)

KungFuKlobber

I still like Atsumori for this. Which would mean, yes, that Nataku had killed both of Eijiro’s real parents.

clogboy

Either that, or Eji was his real son but Hirotomo was too paranoid to believe it. It is kind of coming out of nowhere.

purplelibraryguy

That was my immediate take. Maybe General Bastard whispered lies in his ear about it.

clogboy

Do you know what’s worse:
die knowing or not knowing?
A perfect F-U.

Namaphry

I think that’s the case. Just look at them on this page. The same face!

themadpsychologist

I’m just relieved it wasn’t really Genchu.

foducool

BETRAYAAAAAAAL

clogboy

Mind. Blown.
And with that, I mean Hirotomo’s grey matter upstairs. Even if it wasn’t an actual headshot.

Turul

Daaaamn.

Carolo Taphilus

“All these self-repairing tiles will die! Hahahaha!”

Arkone Axon

Holy crap… conspiracy theory:
Nataku seduced (or raped, by force or trickery or drugs or whatever) Harumi. Implanting his own son into Hirotomo’s wife. Then used Genchu as a scapegoat.

This would leave his son as the official younger son of the Daimyo. Now… get rid of the elder son… then the Daimyo… and the result is Nataku’s son as the new Daimyo.

It kind of reminds me of those ancient stories about a servant woman who saves the lord’s infant son by leaving her own to die in the child’s place… those never quite passed the sniff test with me. “Sure she did. It’s not as if she raised her OWN child, then made up the story to give her son a chance to reach elevated social status as part of the aristocracy… right?”

-or at least fairly close as the force of it was enough to undo his hair.

Minando

‘Aaargh..what! How…!’
‘Oh, it was pretty difficult to keep the powder dry, but I had this watertight bag here, so I…’
‘Hrgh….WHY would…?’
‘Quite simple really, you pull this little trigger here, then this here fuse falls into place and ignites…’
‘By the kami, heir!’

*dies angrily*

SlugFiller

Either Eijiro is the best gunman in the east to have exactly hit that tiny string from that distance, or Hirotomo will be lacking some important faculties to be able to give any meaningful last words.

Kid Chaos

Or maybe it’s like “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”; how about that, pilgrim? 🤔

Or – third option – Eijiro hit that tiny string by accident because he missed Hirotomo’s important faculties, because it’s taking place circa Before-They-Had-Accurate-Guns AD.

SlugFiller

It was already established that Roberto’s guns are anachronistically accurate. Especially when you consider they aren’t rifled.

purplelibraryguy

I don’t think rifling matters much at that range though.

Turul

The convenient thing about early modern firearms is precisely that they can be as accurate as plot demands – and it’s perfectly realistic. One of my favourite print comics makes extensive use of this fact, actually.

http://www.comicsagonistes.hackenbush.org/ Ginger Mayerson

*GASP*! It’s 5:45AM and I literally gasped at the last 2 panels. How shocking. Good work, guys!

Leandro Toniut

Shooting his father on the back? Has Eijiro no need for Bushido, or something?

KungFuKlobber

If a problem is in your way, shoot it in the back.

Major Tom

There’s no full splash page, Hirotomo won’t die from this.

Turul

Unless the splash page (and all the blood, which is traditionally present in copious amounts in NN4B death scenes) is on the next page. I guess we’ll see soon enough!

Archangel

Depends on where he was hit. If the ball got stuck on the front of his ribcage for instance, that would explain the lack of blood on the front of his clothes.

(Fig.2) Ocean Burning

You guys, I realized something: the (original) plot of the kabuki play all the way back in Volume 2 was actual, legit foreshadowing. I’m impressed.

Archangel

Holy shit, you’re right. Talk about Chekov’s Gun. Literally.

(Fig.2) Ocean Burning

Well, what I was referring to is not quite Chekov’s Gun. It bugs me a little when I see people overusing the term Chekov’s Gun on the internet, sorry. : P
On the other hand, the guns themselves have been quite a game-changer in the story up till now! XD

clogboy

It bugs me when I see people overusing the term game-changer… :p
Is it really a game changer when we’re in the end game? I think apotheosis might be a better definition.

(Fig.2) Ocean Burning

Ha, fair enough! That word does get over-used… However, I meant to refer to the gun(s) in the sense of an item. And I guess this is just how I think of guns in general military history… and NN4B is actually the only story I can think of that I’ve seen/read that features the introduction of guns as a weapon in the plot (huh, that’s crazy), so… XP

Archangel

What’s interesting about the advent of firearms is that they weren’t adopted for their killing power but rather for their psychological power. Crossbows/longbows were far deadlier than muskets for a long time, and trebuchets were equally effective in siege roles and cheaper to build. But gunpowder is friggin’ scary, and psychology is at least 75% of actual warfare.

Archangel

I know we haven’t seen this literal pistol before, but considering that–as you say–firearms were a major arc in the story and it was Eijiro who first figured out how to put them to real use, this has been foreshadowed fairly heavily in retrospect. Plus the fact that it’s a literal gun makes the term impossible to resist in this instance. ^_^

I do share your inclination to hair-splitting, though, so I can’t really refute your objection. 😛

(Fig.2) Ocean Burning

Haha, makes sense!

What I was referring to was the adultery thing, though. : P

Archangel

Clearly I need to improve my reading comprehension skills. 😛

(Fig.2) Ocean Burning

No worries! ^_^ Volume 2 was a long time ago, anyway. But I do encourage you everyone to go back and re-read that part, because it’s hilarious. Definitely one of my favorite parts of the whole comic.

Nos Rin aka CTCO

dammit now I gotta go back and reread that. if I ever find the time.

clogboy

Pretty good point almost forgot about that thing. Might read the second paperback volume tonight.

Paul McCubbrey

Rule of thumb for storytelling: Anytime you see a story within a story, that inner story is always definitely foreshadowing 100% of the time with zero exceptions. Cookie Cat was foreshadowing for Change Your Mind.

(Fig.2) Ocean Burning

Yeah, I agree. It’s just that the kabuki play was so long ago that I think almost everyone forgot about it! Obviously the author didn’t, though XD

Hfar

You know, it’s kind of messed up that possibly the best thing Eijiro has ever done for his family and his clan is kill his father.

I’m not sure he was even really aiming at his father. It might have been meant as a “warning shot” to get his father’s attention, since we don’t see any sign of impact (other than the aforementioned hair tie). So where did the bullet actually lodge?

endplanets

Thanks for giving love a bad name kid.

Sweet last panel!

Archangel

Thank you, Eijiro.

purplelibraryguy

The rain put out the match? Quite the opposite! See, he was hesitating whether to actually shoot and a tendril of the lightning hit the gun, detonating the powder. He’s innocent–the storm did it!

KungFuKlobber

A shocking accusation!

Turul

Well damn! That look of shock in the last panel – it’s actually surprise! “What the hell just happened?”

Something tells me that Eijiro won’t be one of those “smiling while holding a gun” types anymore.

Minando

Seems more like ‘I just bit on a lemon and it’s all your fault’ .

Cian Oldershaw

That’s his resting bitch face. I was actually referring to that bit where he fired a gun for the first time and it knocked him on his ass. Once he recovered from the surprise, he laughed like a crazy person.

No more of that for Eijiro, I think. Holding a gun will probably make him think of shooting his dad, from now on.

Nos Rin aka CTCO

He’s going to turn around and go “Ow! What the heck was that?! That hurt!”

Debbie Wright

…you know, when we all think about it, we all knew he was gonna die. Not because we hate him, but because it was slowly becoming obvious that he was essentially a rabid animal; one that needed to be put down for his own good and the safety of others.

purplelibraryguy

He’s been trying hard to die. He was bound to succeed sooner or later.